South Africa: The brand has unlimited potential

BrandSA is the official brand custodian for South Africa, entrusted with building and maintaining a positive brand image for the country both locally and internationally. It is at this forum where the nation (through a gathering of over two hundred delegates from government, civil servant, business) came together to give input and come up with actionable points through various break-away sessions, on how to improve the country's competitive reputation on an international level.

Elevate the brand

BrandSA will use the data gathered through various sector consultations, at the forum and come up with strategies to elevate our brand further, albeit strengthen our country's competitive position.

This forum follows the announcement in September after South Africa was ranked 53rd position out of 148 surveyed in the 2013/14 World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index, making it the second highest ranked country in Africa after Mauritius (45th). It took over Brazil to take second place among the BRICS' economies, with China at 29 and Brazil dropping to 56th place (from 48).

The competitiveness report assesses countries on 12 pillars ranging from institutions to innovation. Just to bask on the results for a moment, South Africa leads the continent in financial market development, technological readiness, market size, business sophistication and innovation.

That is something to be reckoned with, that we are now seen to compete on the same scale as the Brics economies and top of our game compared to our African peers. On the downside, our weakness prevailed in the quality of education and healthcare, and we are not seen as a strong brand, when it comes to being seen as a country of origin manufacturer.

As Walt Disney said, "I have been up against tough competition all my life. I wouldn't know how to get along without it." From when I was child I have always been competitive, because it helped to strive to be the very best. Even in school I remember how I used to compete with my peers to get the best marks in all subjects, and if I came out second or third, it gave me adrenalin to push myself further. The same is true for businesses - they strive to the best and to be ahead of their competitors.

What I think what we must remember is how far we have come as a country, for me SA has been a country with a vision to rise above the apartheid regime, and aspire to a better future for all, and it was under the leadership of Thabo Mbeki's post-apartheid government where South Africa underwent a mind shift and, a major reconstructive brand transformation surgery and the results were impressive.

From strength to strength

Our brand new visual identity, "Alive with Possibility" was born, and from that point SA managed to attract more inward investment, and was seen as the go-to destination by tourists.

It's so easy to point the mistakes and simply be pessimistic, but the country has achieved a lot in that period, in our twenty years we have achieved:

• A recorded a 50% growth in formal housing since 1994. An additional 5,677,614 formal homes were built over the 20 years

• The value of SA's gross domestic product (GDP) is over 83% more than it was in 1993 at R3.2 trillion.
• There has been significant increase in number of graduates and career opportunities, and staggering improvement in access to basic utilities and infrastructure development

• We were given the platform to host the 2010 world cup, which not only proved our capabilities but also fuelled our investor confidence and grew our tourist market.

These are some of the benefits of country branding, that it enables countries with a negative brand image to alter it to a more positive powerful brand; countries such as Ghana are examples of such.

Country branding is important for all countries; especially for developing countries to be able to effectively compete in the global market place. Also countries that have invested in branding are visible to the customer and influence their purchase decision.

It is important for every country to have a central destination, where it manages its marketing communication to attract tourists and investors. It serves as a control mechanism to ensure that these messages are consistent and portray positive images about that country, for us BrandSA has made strides to promote the country through the official gateway, website www.southafrica.info.

However, country branding is far more complex to product or company branding due to the fact that the country has multi layers in the macro socio-economic environment which determines and influences how a country is both managed and seen. It requires the working together of dynamics from every sphere that makes up a country, especially the people of the country.

© lculig - Fotolia.com

Noticing a change

This brings me to my next point, how many people know that our country brand slogan has since changed from "Alive with possibilities" to "Inspiring New ways"? This new visual identity was pitched by BrandSA and was accepted by cabinet in 2012 and was rolled out in the same period; however marketing experts heavily criticised the slogan, saying it's meaningless and it's making a big promise, while "Alive with possibilities" was more relevant and spoke to the nation and broader global community.

Sadly I do agree with this point, I think as South Africans we are not engaged with the current slogan. With the elections coming up in 2014 what is outlook amongst South Africans? As political parties have begun to lure them with marketing strategies each promising a better future?

For me the challenges lie with getting buy-in from the average South African to be part of this process of nation building, where we are not sending conflicted, divided messages but speak from the same voice.

I can't wait to see the findings of Brand SA and the feedback they will have after all their consultations. Will we be re-branding again? Brand gurus, have warned against changing the country's visual identity?

Adding value

Let us see how each of us can add value to help our country to be more competitive, to change our position from being a mere commodity exporter to be seen as a Country of Origin manufacturer? Invest more in the quality of our education and healthcare, find ways to close the poverty line and create more employment opportunities.

If we can get South Africa to be excited again despite the challenging economic times. Having brands such as Nelson Mandela, our cultural heritage, our people and aesthetics. By using our strengths to leverage our competitiveness, will inspire us to be better than yesterday, to continue in our vision in wealth creation and improve the lives of all South Africans.

Most people who have had the experience to travel to other countries, have this to say about our country: east, west, home is best!